Filter Cheap Vodka to Make it Taste Better

I got the word from a friend that if you filter cheap vodka, it will turn into a vodka that normally cost twice as much. I do love alcohol, especially vodka, so hearing this sparked my curiosity. I grabbed the bottle of the cheap stuff and filtered it three times with a Britta filter. I concluded that the filtered vodka was smoother and tasted better; it didn’t have the harsh aftertaste of the unfiltered vodka. This worked, moreover I blind tasted my wife and she came up with the same conclusion.

Before writing this, I found a clip from Myth Busters and they busted the myth. What is the myth though? They are claiming that the filtered cheap vodka is not equivalent or better than a “top-shelf brand” – whatever that means. This may not be a surprise to some, but Belvedere Vodka taste different than Skyy vodka. What the heck did they use as the “top-shelf brand”? So imagine a scenario where there is a shitty vodka, the maker markets the crap out of it, the country adopts it, and it is in every super market. That same supermarket may decide to actually carry a good tasting vodka as well. So my question still stands – What the heck is a “top-shelf brand”? Or what specifically did they use as a top-shelf brand? If they used an extremely good vodka like Kettle One, the tasting is going to fall flat on its face. However, compare it to a Seagram’s and I think there might be a competition.

Here’s the clip from myth busters:

I will need to run a new experiment comparing the filtered cheap vodka vs a Seagram’s, Skyy or Smirnoff to see what data I can gather. But if you’re shitty vodka can be converted into a decent one, why are you concerned? Who cares? The filtering process can be done while doing other chores in the house. It is super easy and I used a brita filter that we put out of commission because a part of the plastic at the top was broken. Since one does not filter vodka every day, the filter will last a long time. This is worth doing.